turkey cabbage soup

In my humble opinion, one of the best gifts a chef could receive after  being served Thanksgiving dinner  would be the carcass of that turkey,  sounds weird , but a turkey frame, hands down makes the best turkey  stock/soup. In fact by now, the broth/and soup from the Thanksgiving bird is gone and the frame from Christmas turkey simmered today in vegetable broth till the remaining meat fell from the bones into the broth.

A bit of change up from my usual  soup, A cabbage that I was going to use for slaw but never got around to using was shredded. I added it to stock and  the meat that was picked from the bones, about 1/2 of the cabbage. A quick  WP search for a similar recipe* suggested I add potatoes. They were now diced, nuked in the microwave , added. A quick chop of celery, diced small, was thrown in. The entire pot heated through, seasoned (dried red pepper flakes and dill weed) and served.

 

 *https://cookinginsens.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/lamb-and-cabbage-soup/

You could of course add grated cheese and green onion garnish, but I consumed a bowl while writing this entry….  !

What ! no onions or garlic ?

Spicy meatballs with noodles

From 12/13/14….

In a recipe like this the measurements are not exact but…..

to ground meat, add about 1/8 teaspoon of:
Ground cloves
Ground allspice
Ground cinnamon
Dried ginger
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper flakes
Minced yellow onion
Ground cumin
Granulated garlic
Bread crumbs
Ground spent grain
Ketchup
One egg

form into meatballs, fry, broil, bake whatever.

Into the drippings, add onion…. 

 

 

shredded carrot….

 

 

 

add broth etc,  __________,____________,_________

 

reduce , stir , thicken……..

make noodles…..

finish sauce……cream, sour cream, milk , yogurt etc.

boil noodles…..

 

Plate ……

Add sauce,( I suppose you could add the meatballs to the sauce in the pan and heat through…….)

Yep, a bit of a change up from the traditional tomato based sauce.  Do you have a tolerance for spicy foods ?

Hearty tomato sauce with chili beans

From December 8th
Utilizing what’s in the kitchen.

pork neck pieces*
flour
salt
pepper

oil, bacon fat etc.
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very fine dice the following so they incorporate into the sauce.
A food processor for this.
onion
celery
carrot
garlic
(green peppers would be a good addition)
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1 tomato paste, small can
tomato sauce, 14 1/2 oz can
whole peeled tomato, 14 1/2 oz can, break up with hand
stock, (turkey, or other) as necessary
Italian seasonings lightly
hot pepper flakes, to taste
wine, strong red, to taste
*******************************************************************************
red beans, in this recipe I used dry red beans.
*******************************************************************************
Flour the pork neck pieces with seasoned flour and brown on all sides.
Remove the neck pieces and add finely chopped onion, celery, carrot, and garlic,
Sautee till wilted and soft. Add the rest of the ingredients less the beans, and return the neck bones to the sauce.
Simmer over very low heat and watch for scorching ,if necessary use a heat deflector, till most of the meat falls from the neck bones.
A very thick and hearty sauce at this point,  it rises and slowly,and  large bubbles are emitted from the sauce, watch out for hot splashes, cover.

(or thin with stock to avoid the lava like eruptions.)

Fish the neck bones from the sauce and reserve for a chef’s meal. (with bread). There will still be some tasty meat left on the bones.

Adjust the sauce viscosity and taste as necessary. Best cooled and refrigerated at this point.

Mason jars or containers from take out are good for this.

This sauce can be used as a base at this point for other recipes, pasta, rice, pizza  etc.

The pork from the bones adds much flavor.

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Soak overnight (dry) red beans in water and boil the next day.
Alternatively use canned beans

Mix the beans with the sauce, season  and thin as necessary.

garnish with cheese and onion

 

pork neck pieces* found these at the store, inexpensive and loaded with flavor.
Didn’t have an idea at the time of purchase what to do with them.
Decided they would add a nice flavor to a tomato base sauce.

fruit crisp

I’m sure everyone has made a version of this using different fruit.

add brown and white sugar together

flour

cut in butter

sprinkle the mixture over fruit

bake in a moderately hot oven

good alone , but better with ice cream, or (whipped) cream.

Roasted Veggies with barley

   Too simple…
Prepare barley

1 cup barley to 2 1/2 cup water
While the barley simmers, cut and dice vegetables.
Fennel
White onion
Green onion
Garlic
Carrot
I used a almost a whole fennel, including some of the stems diced like celery.

Medium dice on the bulb, and some of the fennel tips.
White onion, medium dice.
Green onions, medium dice, both the white portion and green stems.
Carrots cut to similar size.
Toss with salt, pepper, oil, a bit of rosemary.

Cut a piece of parchment paper about double the size of the baking sheet. Center the parchment paper on the baking sheet, add the veggies and fold and seal the paper, all edges to enclose the veggies.
Bake in a moderate oven for about an hour.

The fennel is very flavorable with the accompanying veggies , no other seasonings were needed.

Serve over barley.

The texture of the veggies were just right, not mushy, not too crisp.

With added broth, would be a good soup.

shopping

current prices

ox tail stew

 

Ox tail , a different cut of meat to consider for stew or soup in place of stew beef. I looked up recipes both for oxtail soup and stew . Most are similar in content and preparation  and usually just the gravy or broth thickness will determine whether it’s stew or soup.  I divided the ox tail pieces so I could use them for two recipes.

Flour the pieces of meat and brown well . The flour can be seasoned. Add a small amount of salt and pepper and other seasonings as desired.

 

In a heavy pot, brown the floured ox tails in oil on all sides.

 

 

 

Gather veggies to complete the stew.

 

P rep the veggies and saute

A small amount of broth added to the pot after the veggies are removed.

Instead of wine, I had some frozen grapes that were used to make wine. actually a pyment.

The broth was strained.

Now, all the ingredients were placed in a crock pot.

This recipe was made to be served later, after cooking in the crock pot for several hours, the stew was cooled and refrigerated over night.

Remove the congealed fat, pull out the oxtails and de-bone.

I save the congealed fat in the fridge for sauteing in other recipes.

  

Add the ox tail meat back into the stew, adjust seasonings and both thickness as necessary.

I containerized the stew and saved in  the freezer for later meals.

Later in the week, prepared as a meal. Some peppers and mushrooms added.

A hearty, tasty stew.

The basic cookie

Not a big fan of cookies , but somehow it’s necessary to get chocolate incorporated into your diet. Another requirement, a simple recipe.

How about a one bowl, no mixer required. just the use of your hand(s) recipe.

Don’t actually recall how I found this recipe, possibly a twitter link but whatever some conversion from grams to ounces was required and maybe some translation if your not up on your french.

First the method:

Cut up the butter

Add the sugars, mash together with your fingers

The egg….

The flour….

Mix with your fingers again…

Mix till incorporated….

until it forms together…

for ease of division, form into logs….

Divide as to how large you want the cookies

Place on the cookie sheet flatten slightly, and bake..

Voila !

 

OK ! enough pictures ?

Now the particulars, by the way this is the second recipe, as I cut back on the flour from the first attempt. The first recipe was good also if you like the cookies a bit on the caky  side.

The ones pictured in the video (reference to follow) look very thin and crispy. If you are a cookie expert you can adjust the ingredients to your liking and cook till desired crispness is achieved. I note that not using a mixer (electric etc.) they are more towards a sugar cookie finish, being that mine where a bit on the grainy side. My joke, was that you need permission  from your dentist to eat them. To me a cookie is a cookie so I didn’t fret. (and they didn’t last long being on the counter and brought for working lunch either!).

So ! here’s the link that sold me on the ease of this recipe…

http://www.lexpress.fr/styles/saveurs/recette/video-les-inratables-de-jean-francois-piege-les-cookies-de-philip_1623334.html#cyvTlqxdUxGHMkoS.99

10 ounces flour , 2 cups
1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate, baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 ounce butter
6 ounce brown sugar
4 1/2 ounces sugar
1 egg
8 oz chocolate (Don’t be a whimp, 60% or better chocolate (chips))
400 degree oven
Try less flour 9.4 oz by weight, about  1 and 1/2 cups.

I would like to press this (cookie dough) into a large round in a spring form pan, bake , and build a ice cream cake on top !

Thanks for stopping by Sweet Tooth !

made before the holidays, more drafts to post, now turkey soup I’m working on.

Bonus photo my “kitchen” at my day job !

 

shopping

It was time to shop somewhere else, the warehouse club (in my home city)  after being closed, rebuilt and opened finally demanded that my membership be renewed, all the while it was automatically renewed without cost during the closing, building, and several months  into the opening of the new club at the same location. Was it getting boring ? Pretty much the same selection at both club locations, the other one not more than several miles away where  I shopped while the one in our home city was being rebuilt.

Advantages: bulk quantities, relatively stable pricing, but the fact that this was not only a food store, also offered several other departments of  electronic, clothing, home products etc. , seemed to have the same limited selection, as I mostly shopped probably 90% for basic staple items of food. Getting the latest fad fruit, new exciting ingredient, or your favorite cut of meat (it could probably ordered ahead of time) was dicey,  It’s an advantage not to shop through 37 different varieties of potato chip and snack crackers, most of those decisions were made for you and most of the time those choices being jumbo or dual bulk packaging. No problem there.

After leaning back in my chair and sighing viewing the ominous renewal  notice, a new frontier was to be explored, this one run by the same company of the club and sometimes ridiculed about  the class and attire of the  clientele that shops there.  THE SUPERSTORE ! (or super center)

The first visit was  limited to the food section having it own entrance on one side of the superstore, it just about went front to back of the left side of the store , a definite isle front to back , crossing to the right too far  would set you into another zone other than food.

The selection was more diverse than the club, more available produce in the fist few isles, things like ginger root, kale, broccoli rabe ,parsnips and leeks available in good quantities. Some isles in the produce section had numerous bare spots at the time I shopped.  Shopping the next few isles up were more of a hunting expedition if you like me mostly avoid  prepackaged processed food items. The basics were there it just required a bit of scanning of the multiple sizes and selection of let’s  say olive oil and the trade off is that they are  in smaller packaged sizes, like cocoa , chocolate bits etc. Although a 25 lb bag of flour is available, cheaper than the Club !

Meat, a much better selection than the club, some ox tail and different cuts of lamb available.

One other advantage of the SUPERSTORE is it working hours, 24 hour coverage so you not limited to early closings and if the mood strikes at an off time  shop ! I question though, if the stock and wide selection are maintained during the wee hours of the morning.

A new feature is the ability to scan (photograph) (or enter the transaction number) if your receipt within a certain number of days, It will note if any item can be found at another store at a lower price and credit the amount to a store account , why they don’t have this info available when they shelve the item and price it is beyond me. Maybe a good use of a computer like IBM’s Watson could crunch the numbers and guarantee it’s the lowest price when it passes through the checkout scanner, I fear though, that it could lead to price fixing in a cloud !

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Several recipes and postings are drafted, but being in a lazy blogging slump I’ll get to them ASAP !

That is all.

spiced teacakes

from 10/13/2014

modded from recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/spiced-teacakes/

13 oz strong white bread flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/4 oz sachet fast action dried yeast
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 zest of orange
1 and 1/4 oz caster sugar
1 and 1/4 oz butter, cubed
5 fl oz semi skimmed milk
1 egg beaten , free range
4 and 1/2 oz mixed dried fruit
sunflower oil 2 tsp for greasing
butter for serving

 

 

mix the dry ingredients,

13 oz strong white bread flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/4 oz sachet fast action dried yeast
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 zest of orange
1 and 1/4 oz caster sugar

 

 

in a pan melt the butter and milk

 

 Heat till lukewarm…Whisk in the egg

 

I added raisins to the dry ingredients….

add the warm mix to the dry components

 form it into dough and knead, cover , let rise.

 

divide, shape and  and let rise again.

 

 

Bake

An OK recipe, not really that spicy, but good if you prefer a more biscuit type of cake rather than a sweet cookie.